BACOLOD City – Residential and commercial tenants in this city struggling to pay their rent should not be compelled to settle their dues immediately.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod recently appealed to all establishment owners to observe a moratorium on the rental payments of their tenants and lessees until Dec. 31 of this year.
The city’s legislative body recently adopted two resolutions authored by Councilor Simplicia Distrito.
These measures asked commercial and residential proprietors to suspend collecting rentals from their tenants and to those who renting their homes until the end of the year.
Distrito cited the provisions of Bayanihan Law 2, which gives “tenants and lessees of commercial and residential establishments a 30-day grace period starting from the lifting of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) or modified ECQ (MECQ) and “three gives” installment scheme for paying their utility bills and their lease amid the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
The same law provides that after the grace period, unpaid utility bills of residential and micro, small, and medium enterprises may be settled on a staggered basis payable in not less than three monthly installments, subject to the procedural requirements of concerned regulatory agencies in the imposition of such installment plan without interests, penalties, and other charge.
“Most of us are affected by the pandemic, especially the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), and those that are renting their homes,” said Distrito.
Bacolod was earlier placed under modified ECQ from Sept. 8 to 30, which suspended all forms of public transportation and shut down majority of businesses.
“If we are going to force them, it will harshly affect their income. Their employees will lose their jobs and owners of residential and commercial building owners will also lose their rental income,” the councilor said.
As of Sunday night, Bacolod City had 624 active cases, 3,868 recoveries, and 116 deaths./PN
